Judicial and Constitutional Studies

Judicial and constitutional studies examines how courts acquire and exercise power, how legal institutions shape—and are shaped by—political forces, and how ordinary people come to understand their rights and the law. Scholars in this area investigate questions ranging from what makes judges genuinely independent to how public opinion influences constitutional decisions, and why some groups turn to litigation as a strategy for social change while others do not. A central tension running through the research concerns whether courts can serve as reliable checks on majoritarian politics or whether they ultimately reflect the partisan and cultural conditions that produce them. Active debates include how international and domestic courts interact, under what conditions judicial review strengthens democratic accountability, and how the erosion of judicial norms ripples through broader systems of separated powers.

Works

77,859

Total citations

424,500

Keywords

Judicial PoliticsLegal ConsciousnessConstitutional ReviewJudicial IndependenceSupreme CourtPublic Opinion